About the Editor

Carlos da Silva Campos.

Professional journalist, with background on the economical press and Packaging Editor since 1982, heading independent magazines REVIPACK (packaging), REVIPLAST (plastics) and REVIPROJECT (automation).
Lawyer since 1984 and and Packaging Consultant since 1986, working for several industry associations related to packaging and recycling. Honorary Member of IPPO - the International Packaging Press Organisation. Served as Vice-President (1996-1999) and Chairman (1999-2002).

The international meeting MeetingPack 2017 will be held on 30 and 31 May in Valencia (Spain). It is organized by AINIA CENTRO TECNOLÓGICO and AIMPLAS and it will bring together more than 300 experts in food plastic packaging from different countries.

The event brings together the whole food packaging value chain. Big food multinationals, packaging, materials and packaging equipment manufacturers, as well as representatives of the distribution sector and other agents, such as public managers that plan the management and control policies in Europe, experts in food legislation and technologists will attend the event. Some of the companies that have already confirmed the attendance are UBE, Dow Chemical, Repsol, M&G and Danone.

This edition focuses on the topic «Convenience: Driving Barrier Packaging Innovation», where the big global technologic challenges in this field will be discussed, challenges like barrier materials, new manufacturing and packaging systems, sealable and reclosable materials, additive manufacturing, industry 4.0, sustainable packages and recycling, active packages and advances in quality test and control. To see the programm of MWEETINGPACK 2017, click HERE.

Packages, in particular with barrier material, play a current and future demand-driven key role of the convenience requirement of European consumers and the challenge of overcoming the food waste or the need of increasing the shelf life of products and the food safety.

Furthermore, it coincides with the event Made From Plastic 2017, which had more than 100 exhibitors and 3,500 visitors in its last editions.

A transparent plastic can for canned food, oxygen absorbers that increase the food shelf-life and bags to pack wine or oil are some of the innovations lunched during MeetingPack2015, the packaging conference held in Valencia from 25th to 26th of February.

Kortec has launched a transparent plastic can that can be used for packaging food that used to be packaged in metallic cans. They permit to keep the food shelf-life up to five years.

Absorbers

In Europe 95 kg of food are wasted per person per year, five times more than in Japan. One option for increasing the shelf-life of sensible-to-oxygen-action packaged food is through the incorporation of oxygen scavengers, as Mitsubishi has done, capable to remove the remaining oxygen from inside the packages, in order to avoid the oxidation reactions that damage food and increase the shelf-life in a healthier way. The oxygen scavengers can be included as extern agents to the package, as labels or little bags inside. This kind of technology is really used in Japan because of its oxidation prevention qualities, changes of food colour, but it is not so extended in Europe. One of the advantages of oxygen scavengers is that they do not need additional industrial equipment to use these technologies. It also prevents the oxidation of oils and fat, so a better preservation of the nutritional qualities of the food is obtained.

To date, supermarkets have only been able to keep products on their meat counters for a few days. But now researchers have developed an antimicrobial active packaging film that destroys the microorganisms on the product surface, thereby increasing the shelf life not only of fresh meat, but also of fish, cheese and other cold cuts.

The Packaging Community has undertaken a survey into decision making in packaging across 9 European countries and concluded that there is a big move towards environmentally-friendly and sustainable products. This is partly met in the trend towards lower weight, as discussed at the October 2009 AMI conference on Thin Wall Packaging held in Cologne, Germany. Jon Nash of AMI described typical applications: yoghurt, cheese, cream, fresh produce, bakery, yellow fats, ready meals, sandwiches, pet foods, frozen foods, etc. Dairy is the largest sector at almost 25% and chilled meals are among the fastest growing areas. PP and PS dominate, followed by PET and PVC with a small percentage of other materials. READ THE FULL ARTICLE